Legacy Of Liberation (cwgc)

The Dutch town of Arnhem saw one of the most dramatic incidents of the Allies’ advance towards Germany, when an airborne landing failed to capture its crossing over the Rhine – later immortalised on film as ‘a bridge too far’. Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery is testament to the anguish of ongoing occupation as well as eventual liberation, and sits at the heart of a community where remembrance is still an important ritual. We speak to Willemien Rieken, a former ‘flower child’ who’s laid flowers at one grave in Oosterbeek War Cemetery for 75 years; historian Sir Antony Beevor about the wider conflict in 1944; and former Glider Pilot Jim Hooper, who landed troops in Arnhem during Operation Market Garden. We also explore the Arnhem Airborne Museum, situated in the former hotel which was used as a headquarters by Commonwealth forces during the operation.